306 ODYSSEY • BOOK XX [68,

they lived, and flourished on the cheese, the sweet honey, and
the mellow wine that Aphrodite brought them, while Here
made them beautiful and wise beyond all oilier women, chaste
Artemis increased their stature, and Athene taught them the
skilled handicrafts that are a woman's pride. But there came a
day when the Lady Aphrodite, eager to make happy marriages
for them all, went up to high Olympus to consult with Zeus the
Thunderer, who knows so well what good and evil is allotted to
each one of us on earth - and on tliat very day the Storm-Fiends
snatched them up and gave them to the hateful Erinyes to serve
their beck and call. Gods of Olympus, blot me out like that; or
strike me dead, fair Artemis, so that I may sink into the very
bowels oftlie earth with Odysseus' image in my heart, rather
than serve the pleasures of a lesser man.

^h, it is hard but not beyond endurance, when sick at heart
one weeps the whole day long but is possessed by sleep at night,
sleep which the moment that it seals one's eyes drives out all con-
sciousness of good and bad alike. But even the dreams that
heaven inflicts on me are evil. This very night again I thought I
saw Odysseus by me in the bed, looking exactly as he looked
when he sailed away with the fleet; and my heart leapt up, since
I took it for no dream but actual fact/

Close on her prayers came Dawn anil filled the East with gold.
Odysseus was disturbed by the sounds of Penelope's distress. He
recognized her voice and in a waking dream he seemed to see
her beside him with the light of recognition in her eyes. Me took
the cloak and sheepskins from his bed and put them on a chair
indoors, carried the oxhide out and laid it down, then lifted up
his hands in prayer: * 0 Father Zcus» if it is true that after all your
persecution you gods by your grace brought me home over dry
land and sea to my own country, let someone in the house,
where they are waking now, utter a lucky word for me and let
some other sign be given out of doors/

No sooner had he made his prayer than Zeus the Counsellor
thundered in answer from his throne above the mists on the
dazzling heights of Olympus, Royal Odysseus rejoiced; and